I started teaching my son about video editing last weekend. Naturally, he picked it up without fear or hesitation, instinctively figuring out how you can use editing to create a viewer response. He explored close-ups, moving the camera, speeding up the pace and choosing the right font — stuff I mess around with all the time.
I admit I imagine him growing into a filmmaking prodigy, working with me during the summers and bringing new ideas, technology and energy to the business, preventing me from turning into a dusty old relic just a few years into this fast-moving business. More realistically, video editing is probably something everyone will use in their daily lives not too many decades in the future. There will be tools that make it genuinely easy and filmmaking skills will just be another part of cultural literacy.
Meantime, I hope I can keep him making movies!